Jodi Arias returned to the stand on Tuesday at her murder trial and told the court at length about her abusive past, numerous cheating boyfriends and how her life changed
forever the day she met the victim.

Arias, 32, is accused of stabbing
and slashing Travis Alexander 27 times, slitting his throat and shooting
him in the head in his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008.

The murder suspect testified for the second day at her trial on Tuesday after defense attorneys made the shock decision to put her on the stand. Arias faces the death penalty if
convicted in a case that has gripped viewers with lurid
stories of sex, lies, religion and violence.

Scroll down for video

Telling her story: Jodi Arias takes the stand at the Arizona court for the second day and told the jury that she had killed Travis Alexander in self-defense

She initially denied any involvement, then later blamed it on masked intruders before eventually settling on self-defense.

Arias claims Alexander invited her to his home for a day of sex, then turned violent, forcing her to fight for her life. Prosecutors say she killed him in a jealous rage.

Arias testified on Monday about her abusive childhood at the hands of her parents, and of a high school boyfriend who once tried to strangle her.

Share this article

On Tuesday, she told jurors of other boyfriends - before she met Alexander - who cheated on her, lied to her, had alcohol problems and didn't treat her well.

The defense claims Alexander, a successful businessman and motivational speaker, too, was abusive, both physically and mentally.

Arias said she first met Alexander at a
Las Vegas convention in late 2006 after years of bad relationships,
working multiple jobs and struggling to pay bills.

She was enamored by him. She had been in
a bad relationship, but after meeting Alexander, everything seemed
different. She suddenly saw both personal and professional
opportunities, a time to begin enjoying life.

Pensive: Arias, 32, told jurors about her abusive boyfriends as she appeared on the stand on Tuesday to defend herself

Pleading self-defense: Arias spoke at length to jurors about her troubled past

'The things he said to me made a big impression on me,' Arias told jurors, often staring directly at the panel as if having a conversation with them. She said Alexander allowed her to 'step back and make me look at where I was and where I was going'.

He also told her about his Mormon faith, she said. Arias said she soon ended her relationship with another man and within a week, she saw Alexander again. That's when things became sexual, she testified.

While staying the night at a home of one of Alexander's friends, a day before he was to take her to church, she said the pair engaged in oral sex.

'I didn't want to tell him no so I just kept going with it,' she said. 'At that point in time, I was not really accustomed to saying no.'

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys have depicted Alexander as a liar and a cheater who called Arias derogatory names, belittled her, and told her and other girlfriends that he was a devout Mormon saving sex for marriage, while in reality he was having sex with other women.

Arias' defense is attempting to build
sympathy with jurors in hopes they won't convict her of first-degree
murder, something that could potentially lead to a death sentence, by
establishing a past littered with abuse, said California criminal
defense lawyer Michael Cardoza, who has been following the trial.

Taking it all in: Arias' mother, Sandy Arias, listens as her daughter testifies during her murder trial in Phoenix. Her daughter said that her mother beat her as a child

'What they're doing is trying to elicit sympathy from the jury, to show, look at what this poor person had to go through throughout her life,' Cardoza said.

It's a good technique, he said, but it could backfire if her testimony drags too long into the minutia of her life.

'They could start losing some jurors,' Cardoza said. 'They should really step it up and move it along because if jurors get bored, they could stop paying attention.'

The trial began in early January with salacious details about a torrid romance between Arias and Alexander. She claims they dated for about five months, then broke up but continued to see each other for sex. Alexander's friends said she stalked him after the breakup and became possessive and jealous.

Arias said she lied early in the investigation about not being at the scene of the killing because she planned to commit suicide.

Authorities said they found her hair and bloody palm print at the scene of the killing, along with time-stamped photographs on a memory card in a camera discovered inside Alexander's washing machine that place Arias there on the day he died. The photos included one of Arias nude on his bed, one of Alexander alive in the shower, then one of his body on the bathroom floor.

Defense attorneys have yet to explain why Arias apparently attempted to clean the scene, washing Alexander's bedding and the camera, and what happened to the weapons.

Authorities say Alexander was shot in the head with a .25 caliber gun, the same caliber Arias' grandparents reported stolen from their Northern California home about a week before the killing.

On Tuesday, when asked by the defense if she had killed Alexander, Arias softly said 'Yes'.

When asked by defense attorney Kirk
Nurmi why she had killed Alexander at his Mesa home in June
2008, Arias responded: 'The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself.'

'In self-defense': Jodi Arias took the stand in her own defense on Monday and admitted to the jury that she had killed lover Travis Alexander

The jury were also shown pink panties on Monday with 'Travis' emblazoned across them. A computer forensic examiner testified that he recovered a photo of the underwear on July 12, 2008 more than a month after Alexander was killed.

The prosecution questioned the forensics worker as to whether the picture appeared staged but he said he was unaware of the context.

However the prosecution says Arias was 'obsessed' with Alexander and flew into a jealous rage when he revealed he wanted to start dating someone else.

She was told several times to speak up and move closer to the microphone. Jurors watched Arias closely while some took notes.

Arias told the that she had been severely beaten as a child by her mother and father when she lived in California and also by the first boyfriend she ever loved.

Alexander's family listened in the courtroom as she spoke, some unable to raise their eyes to look at Arias. Alexander's sister Tanisha Sorenson watched every word of Arias' testimony with an unflinching gaze.

Arias wept as she told the court: 'I'm very nervous today. Life was ideal up until I was aged seven. Parents would spank us and around seven-years old it started getting more intense.

'My dad started using a belt. My mom began to carry a wooden spoon on her purse.'

She continued: 'It was a wooden kitchen spoon and if we misbehaved she would use it on my brother and I, she would hit us hard with it.

'It left welts on my body. Dad didn't leave welts as often as my mom - she also used a belt. My dad was quite intimidating so didn’t need to use strength to get his point across. My mother did.'

Volatile relationship: Arias had dated Travis Alexander for five months but continued a casual sexual relationship with him after the split up

Arias was asked in court if she loved her mother, to which she quietly responded, 'yes'.

She talked at length about the relationship she had with her parents growing up and claimed she was subjected to beatings.

'They were intense and increased in frequency as I got older,' Arias said. 'I don't recall how many times a week but it could be any thing from four times a week to once every two weeks.

'I didn't like being hit so I would squirm around a little but the more we did the harder we would get hit.

'My mother broke my brother's hand once when he tried to block one of her blows. As I got into a teenager, my dad would get rougher and rougher.'

She added: 'When I was younger I remember feeling betrayed and confused that my mother was beating me.

The accused: Arias is facing the death penalty after her lover Travis Alexander was stabbed 27 times, had his throat cut and was shot in the head at his home in June 2008

Unflinching gaze: The sister of Travis Alexander, Tanisha Sorenson (left) watches as Jodi Arias admits to killing her brother Travis on the stand on Monday

'As I got older it made me mad and I didn't get why she was punishing me. I was mad at her and it hurt. I loved her but it put a strain on our relationship.

'My dad never beat me with his fist - he would just shove me into furniture and the piano, tables, desk, chairs, whatever was around. One time I even passed out.

'This was when I was 16 or 17. Not as often with my dad as with my mum. If I did something to upset them it would happen. Sometimes I got grounded. I loved my father even when he was beating me.'

Arias told the packed courtroom that the beatings continued throughout the time she was in high school.

In one incidence, Arias had sneaked out at night with friends and when her parents woke up and found out, she claimed her father hit her across the face, knocking her to the ground.

Jodi's story: The murder suspect described to the court how she was beaten by her parents and an ex-boyfriend

Grief-stricken: Travis Alexander's family have attended throughout the murder trial in Arizona

Following a brief recess on Monday afternoon, Arias returned to the stand where she discussed an earlier relationship in 1999 with a man called Bobby Juarez, who she described as her 'first true love'.

She said that she moved in with Juarez because she had become frustrated with her parents and how they treated her.

Arias described the relationship as 'good' until Juarez was unfaithful with a girl he met on a partyline 900 number. She also told the jury that the boyfriend once put her in a stranglehold and almost broke her arm during an argument.

Following the end of the relationship with Bobby, Arias said that she moved in with her grandparents because she did not want to return to the atmosphere of her parents' house.

However Arias said that she resumed a casual, sexual relationship with Arias because she felt the violence was 'isolated incidents'.